I was born long after he died but I would sure like to know more about him.
Bob Deese was born September 15, 1858 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas and died September 12, 1928 in Cromwell, Seminole County, OK. The Tarrant County and Denton County courthouses burned down and the records lost. We don't have his father's name. His mother was Louisa Tannehill. Donna Carroll, my first cousin once removed, has been researching the parents of Robert Deese and would appreciate any information that you might provide.
He married Susan Elizabeth "Bettie" McGrew, the daughter of
John Lewis McGrew and Rutha Melinda Long, who outlived him and died in Bartlesville, OK January 21, 1940.
The following is a letter from my Great Aunt, Nettie Deese Fairchild, their youngest child.
Her mother died young, leaving Bettie to be mother and housekeeper for the family. She worked in the field as well as doing the laundry by hand scrubbing the clothes on a washboard, boiling them in an iron pot heated by a wood fire in the back yard, and hanging them on a clothes line to dry, ironing them with an iron heated on a wood stove.
When she was about 20 years old, they migrated West by covered wagon pulled by oxen to Texas. She taught school, and taught singing by teaching the musical scale do-re-me-etc. They lived in Montague County and southern Indian Territory where she met Robert Nicholas
Bob Deese. They were married in July 1893 at Arthur, I. T. (now Okla.)Bettie was a midwife and loved by everyone who knew her.
She bore 11 children and raised 7 to adulthood. She helped raise most of her granchildren.
I can remember growing up, hearing a knock on the door in the middle of the night and hearing a man's voice saying
Mrs. Deese, Jane is ready to have her baby. and in minutes, Moma would be ready to go with him, whomever it might be to deliver the baby. In her life, she delivered hundreds of babies.She was always ready to help anyone in need. The kindest person I have ever known. Right up to her death, she was caring for a disabled son and his three teenage children.
Bettie was a fine seamstrss, who always made her own patterns. She could copy anything by looking at the picture of it. She also was a fine cook. She loved vegetables and greens of any kind. She could make any kind of candy. She and Bob ran candy kitchens all over N. Texas and Southern Okla. She must have been the original
woman's libber . My dad told every one of the kids what they could and could not do, but never Bettie. She did what she wanted and when.When it came to helping anyone, she never said no. She helped deliver every grandchild and her first great grandchild, Jon Reede.
Bettie loved progress and was an avid reader, she would read anything at hand and find it interesting. She loved radio and I have wished many times she could have lived to see televsion, how she would have loved seeing the astronauts and their exploits.
She loved Gardening- vegetables, flowers or anything of the plant life. She was a born teacher to anyone interested enough to listen. (I was all eyes and ears.)
Loving touch I can remember if I didn't feel well, she had only to lay her hand on my forehead and I felt better. If I got hungry in the middle of the night, she would get out of bed and fix me something to eat, no matter how tired she felt, never complained. She always cooked 3 meals a day, Winter or Summer. No central heat or air (only what God provided>
My Dad thought he had to have hot biscuits for breadfast and either biscuits or corn bread the other meals. She didn't have an easy life, but she always seemed happy and never complained.
I could write a book about her goodness and kindness, but I think this will give you an idea of Bettie Deese.
Thank you, Aunt Nettie, I wish that I could have met her.
© 1997 spilot@atlantic.net
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